Clinton Praises Bin Laden Killing In New Obama Campaign Video

4/27/2012 1:55 PM ET

Former President Bill Clinton praises President Barack Obama for his decision to kill Osama bin Laden in a new Obama campaign video that questions whether presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney would have made the same decision.

"The president is the decider in chief. Nobody can make that decision for you," Clinton says in the web video. "Look, he knew what would happen. Suppose the Navy Seals had gone in there and it hadn't been bin Laden. Suppose they had been captured or killed."

Clinton added, "The downside would have been horrible for him, but he reasoned I cannot in good conscience do nothing. He took the harder and the more honorable path and the one that produced in my opinion the best result."

Bin Laden was killed in Pakistan on May 2, 2011 after Obama ordered the operation — code-named Operation Neptune Spear — that was carried out by a team of U.S. Navy SEALS.

The video goes on to ask the question "which path would Mitt Romney have taken?" It then shows a quote from a Reuters article from August 4, 2007, which said, "Mitt Romney criticized Barack Obama for vowing to strike al-Qaeda targets inside Pakistan if necessary."

The campaign video suggests that Romney would not have made the same decision to order the operation.

Responding to the video, Romney campaign spokeswoman Andrea Saul said, "The killing of Osama bin Laden was a momentous day for all Americans and the world, and Governor Romney congratulated the military, our intelligence agencies, and the President."

"It's now sad to see the Obama campaign seek to use an event that unified our country to once again divide us, in order to try to distract voters' attention from the failures of his administration," she added.